Posts Tagged ‘exercise’

Trending lately are articles on how sitting for almost the entire day can be harmful to health. The latest issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, reports how the bad effects of sitting can affect health and how these effects are not be “reversed” by physical activity….

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Background: The magnitude, consistency, and manner of association between sedentary time and outcomes independent of physical activity remain unclear.

Purpose: To quantify the association between sedentary time and hospitalizations, all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer in adults independent of physical activity.

Data Sources: English-language studies in MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, Web of Knowledge, and Google Scholar databases were searched through August 2014 with hand-searching of in-text citations and no publication date limitations.

Take note however, that the deleterious effects of prolonged sitting time on health from watching TV, working in our office overtime, are more pronounced among those who do little or no exercise than among those who exercise regularly.

It is therefore advised to take breaks by standing and walking few minutes for every hour of sitting.

Patients and MethodsWe included 2223 participants (aged 12-49 years; 1053 females [47%]) without known heart disease who had both cardiovascular fitness testing and at least 1 day of accelerometer data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2004. From accelerometer data, we quantified bouts of exercise as mean minutes per day for each participant. Sedentary time was defined as less than 100 counts per minute in mean minutes per day. Cardiorespiratory fitness was derived from a submaximal exercise treadmill test. Multivariable-adjusted linear regression analyses were performed with fitness as the dependent variable. Models were stratified by sex, adjusted for age, body mass index, and wear time, and included sedentary and exercise time.

ResultsAn additional hour of daily exercise activity time was associated with a 0.88 (0.37-1.39; P<.001) metabolic equivalent of task (MET) higher fitness for men and a 1.37 (0.43-2.31; P=.004) MET higher fitness for women. An additional hour of sedentary time was associated with a −0.12 (−0.02 to −0.22; P=.03) and a −0.24 (−0.10 to −0.38; P<.001) MET difference in fitness for men and women, respectively.

ConclusionAfter adjustment for exercise activity, sedentary behavior appears to have an inverse association with fitness. These findings suggest that the risk related to sedentary behavior might be mediated, in part, through lower fitness levels.

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The study actually tells us interesting facts about prolonged sitting. That for every hour we spend sitting in our offices, it will reduce the gains of a daily workout by eight percent. So it is suggested that we stand and walk in between our daily routine work sitting in our office tables. One can use the break times to take short brisk walks around the building or to a vending machine and back as simple means to achieve the goal.

What is interesting in the study also is the fact that a daily dose of an hour of exercise can work wonders. It can offset the bad effects of the six to seven hours of sitting. Perfect data for me!!!!

This is what I practice in my daily routine…..

As a physician, sitting all day listening to my patients is a routine. I therefore interspersed my sitting times listening to their problems by simply standing up to do the physical examination. This is on top of my daily afternoon run and my daily morning weights and sit ups that totally make my day complete!